Action movie buffs will recall Olympus Has Fallen, a 2013 film in which the White House is attacked and taken over by Korean terrorists seeking to unify the Korean Peninsula. The sequel London Has Fallen, in which radical Islamic terrorists plagued the UK capital, followed in 2016.
While the plots are fantastical, the underlying message behind both films unfortunately resonates more than ever in 2024. The White House has not been physically attacked, but its current occupant has succeeded in undermining and eroding America’s standing on the global stage to a degree that was unimaginable when the Cold War ended, leaving the US the sole superpower.
Similarly, masses of Islamist fanatics can be found marching in the streets of London these days, threatening violence against Jews and supporters of Israel. The British government and police seem powerless to intervene in the face of their poisonous message.
In both movies, traitors within the ranks of government aided and abetted the terrorists. Today, we have university graduates trained in Marxist postcolonial views of the world entering the corridors of power. Their malign influence is making inroads.
The devastating events of 9/11, coupled with the disgrace of Americans being held hostage in the US Embassy in Tehran in 1980, should have taught the US and the Western world that radical Islam has replaced communism as the major threat to Western civilization, with both the Sunni and Shiite branches posing a threat. Have Americans forgotten how the destruction of the Twin Towers was celebrated enthusiastically throughout the Arab world and, in particular, in Gaza? Don’t Westerners notice that the Iranian mullahs regard the US as the “big Satan” and that for decades now, they have been chanting “Death to America”?
When did America's status as a global power begin to wane?
America’s decline as a superpower can be traced to its invasion of Iraq in 2003. Leaving aside the justification for the invasion—the need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that were never found—there is no dispute that Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator who gassed his own people and posed a clear danger to civilization. America erred more in its management of the war’s aftermath than in the war itself.
Barack Obama’s ascent to the US presidency in 2009 led to the mess. When American forces were in Iraq, the Iranians felt exposed and threatened. Iran even suspended its efforts to develop nuclear weapons during that period. When President Obama withdrew most US forces from Iraq in 2011, he surrendered de facto control over Iraq to Iran and enabled Iranian influence to stretch to Lebanon. Then came his lack of response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons against its own civilians.
President Obama’s next error was entering the nuclear agreement with Iran in 2015, which removed sanctions and enabled Iran to proceed on an unimpeded trajectory toward producing nuclear weapons.
When Joe Biden assumed the presidency in 2021, he halted the momentum of the Abraham Accords by distancing his administration from Saudi Arabia and seeking to renew the nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump had withdrawn from. He also removed sanctions that were crippling the Iranian economy. The botched withdrawal of US forces and the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan sent shivers throughout the world regarding America’s fickleness.
The fruits of these calamitous decisions can be seen today, as Iran has successfully attacked Israel on seven fronts in pursuit of the Jewish state’s destruction.
In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, there was a glimmer of hope that the US had awoken from its slumber. President Biden visited Israel and warned its enemies against attacking. Perhaps the US had recovered its principles and realized that Hamas’ attack on Israel was only one expression of radical Islam’s attack on Western civilization.
Tragically, the Biden Administration’s conduct has seen a return to policies that will only appease and embolden Iran and its proxies. The US’s constant attempts to restrain Israel from entering Rafah to fully dismantle Hamas have been infuriating, as has been the obsession with delivering aid to Gaza without any quid pro quo regarding the hostages held by Hamas.
The Biden Administration has the temerity to suggest that Israel has been irresponsible in its conduct in the Gaza war, an accusation that flies in the face of reality. In fact, the ratio of civilian casualties to combatants killed is lower for Israel in this war than it was for America in Iraq or Afghanistan, despite Israel operating in a far more challenging environment. President Biden’s recent egregious decision to withhold the supply of precision armaments to Israel has sent a horrific message to the region. The US is demonizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all while giving Qatar—patron of the Muslim Brotherhood—a free pass.
The “woke” progressives, in alliance with radical Islamists, have succeeded in undermining Israel’s relationship with the US. By seeking to put the brakes on Israel’s efforts to dismantle and remove Hamas from power in Gaza, the US is sending all the wrong messages. It is telling Hamas that there is no need to release the hostages and that the group won’t be removed from power.
This policy will encourage the Iranians and their proxies to continue attacking Israel. A nuclear-armed Iran is inevitable, a fact that instills fear and trepidation among current or future Arab allies now unsure whether the US can be relied upon to support them. The message extends well beyond the Middle East to China and Russia, which have formed an axis with Iran.
The stakes for the future of the world order are high. The direction of the war in Ukraine and the potential of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan will be largely determined by the leadership shown by the US. The war in Gaza cannot be localized as a conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It must be seen as part of the conflict between Western civilization and radical Islam—which has formed an axis with Russia and China, countries with the perennial desire to weaken America. This is why the US must do all it can to ensure that Israel prevails.
Unlike in the movies, there does not appear to be a hero who will save the day. The Democratic Party has allowed its progressive wing to control the agenda, and there is no reason to believe that the Democrats will reassume their traditional unconditional support for Israel. On the contrary, domestic considerations and a forthcoming election are taking priority. Trump can pontificate that none of this would have occurred had he been in power. Should he succeed in winning the next elections, it may be too late to undo the damage.
Romy Leibler is a former prominent business and communal leader in Australia now residing in Jerusalem, Israel.